Urban Style: The Lowepro Classified Sling

The Lowepro Classified Sling 180 AW is stylish with many nice touches including leather accents.

In the world of cars, how often do you hear the phrase, “Hey, it’s just as nice as an Audi or BMW”? Seldom. Apparently the world of camera bags is different. I’ve been seeing more references to our products by other manufacturers lately. Take the Lowepro Classified Sling 180 AW, for example. It’s one of the most elegant, functional slings I’ve used. For me, the Classified 180 is the luxury sedan of photo urban gear. So I’d like to take you for a quick spin so you can get a feel for it too.

The Classified Sling fits *comfortably* over my right shoulder, easily holds my Canon 5D Mark II with 24-105mm L attached, plus room for my 70-200mm and the 16-35mm L. I keep an iPad stashed in the roomy front zippered slash pocket. I stow camera batteries and the Camera Connection Kit in the top zippered pocket, plus pens and model releases. And there’s still room left over.

When working in an urban setting, the Classified Sling never leaves my body. I have fast access to all of my equipment by simply sliding it around and opening the compartments via the leather zipper pulls to quickly grab the camera, lens, or computer. Once I get the shot, slide the bag back and keep moving.

There are plenty of hidden compartments to safely stash documents and other sensitive materials. You can reveal the Hideaway Tripod Mount if you need to bring your sticks, or pull out the All Weather cover if the climate turns against you. Need to grab the bag on your way out the door? Use the loop handles on either side of the Classified 180.

Does your assignment require you to use your 70-200mm f/2.8? Not a problem. Remove the padded dividers with suede tips and keep your camera-mounted long zoom handy, but safely out of sight inside the sling bag.

In my opinion, the Lowepro Classified Sling 180 AW is the perfect example of exceptional design: discreet, functional, and very stylish. And if you follow what’s going on, it’s the design that others are trying to imitate. But why not just go with the original?

Derrick Story is the Photography Evangelist for Lowepro.

About Derrick

Derrick Story is a professional photographer, writer, teacher and photography evangelist for Lowepro. He has authored several digital media books, including his latest, The Photoshop CS4 Companion for Photographers and The Digital Photography Companion (O'Reilly Media, publisher).
Derrick is a Senior Contributor for Macworld magazine where he writes a digital photography column, and he's a regular presenter on the popular training site, Lynda.com.
Online, Derrick has formed a virtual camera club called The Digital Story (www.thedigitalstory.com) that's open to all photography enthusiasts. The site features weekly podcasts, daily posts, training videos, and reader-submitted photos.
You can reach Derrick at DStory@lowepro.com

Hi, Parv —
Sorry for the delay in responding — hopefully better late than never….

You shouldn’t have any problem carrying your 70-200mm lens. In the Classified 220 it should fit still attached to the camera body with room for an additional lens or 2. It should also fit in the 180 size, but not attached to the camera body.

Regarding the sling strap, it isn’t movable from one side to the other. The design focus was for giving the fastest access possible to gear. If the strap is moved to the other shoulder, the access point to gear would be on the wrong side.

We’d love to get more feedback from you about this. Why would this be an appealing to you? Is it a case of right handed vs. left handed or more to be able to shift the load from side to side?